The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles A. Lindbergh (book)
Billy Wilder (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 April 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

The Story Behind the Story of Lindbergh's Incredible Flight to Paris!

Plot:

Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.

Plot Keywords:

Flashback | Cotton In Ears | Nova Scotia | Priest | National Hero

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

James Stewart	...	Charles Augustus 'Slim' Lindbergh
Murray Hamilton	...	Bud Gurney
Patricia Smith	...	Mirror Girl
Bartlett Robinson	...	Benjamin Frank Mahoney, President Ryan Airlines Co.
Marc Connelly	...	Father Hussman
Arthur Space	...	Donald Hall, Chief Engineer Ryan Airlines
Charles Watts	...	O.W. Schultz, Salesman Atlas Suspender Co.

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo | Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Iceland:L | Finland:S | USA:PG | West Germany:6 | USA:Approved (certificate #17794)

Filming Locations:

Guyancourt, Yvelines, France

Company:

Billy Wilder Productions

Trivia:

One of the replicas of "The Spirit of St. Louis" built for this film is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan while another is at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Lindberg falls asleep, he is awakened by the sun reflecting in the mirror used to read his compass. In a close-up of the mirror, it clearly says "E" for East, and Lindberg stares into the light after awakening. But since it is morning, and the sunlight is coming from the East, it would be impossible for the light to reflect on Lindberg's face unless it were coming from the West, which is behind the aircraft.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Reporter: [checking his copy] Here at the Garden City Hotel, less than a mile from Roosevelt Field... less than three-quarters of a mile from Roosevelt Field... everyone is waiting, as they have been now for seven days and nights, waiting for the rain to stop...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Goodbye Girl (2004) (TV)

Pretty Good Depiction, But Lindbergh WASN'T First Across the Atlantic

Jimmy Stewart made films that were always watchable, with an amazing variety from the quirky Harvey to the dark Vertigo & even as far as supplying a voice for the cartoon American Tail. Unlike others (Ronald Regan & John Wayne to name but two) he wasn't afraid to fight for his country either & his experience as a USAF pilot during WW2 served him well for this epic.

The central problem for the film makers is the 30 hour flight, there simply wasn't enough material to depict this, the most famous episode of the whole story & the whole reason behind the legend. The use of the flashback here is entirely reasonable & to be expected as a result.

What does annoy me is the fact that he wasn't the first to fly non stop across the Atlantic. He WAS the first to fly SOLO & the first to fly non stop to Paris, but he just wasn't first to fly across the Atlantic non stop. Alcock & Brown flew across, non stop, in 1919, some 8 years before Lindnergh. Don't forget 8 years may not seem much but consider that in 8 years we went from the Mk1 Spitfire to the almost supersonic Sabre jet! Also the Vivkers Vimy bomber Alcock & Brown used was World War 1 surplus equipment, running on gasoline that had more in common with used dishwater. Yet this achievement is side stepped by Hollywood & simply ignored, yet if it was Lindbergh who'd crawled out to chip ice off the wings of his aircraft time after time we'd never have heard the end of it (a daring feat necessary because the Vimy kept accumulating too much ice to keep flying during a storm).

Useful, this film is an incomplete picture, as carefully framed in it's story line as the the impressive camera work. It does, however, continue to present a skewed view of history.